The Soul of Esther Phillips

Remembered as teen sensation Little Esther and as a more mature soul artist Esther Phillips graced the R&B music scene for a span of 34 years.
An extremely talent singer and instrumentalist Esther’s repertoire covered jazz, boogie, blues, country and disco.

Born Esther Mae Jones in Galveston, Texas, the singer grew up in the separate households of her divorced parents. She started singing in church but when the family moved to Los Angeles Esther was greatly influenced by the prevailing blues and jazz sounds and artistes like Dinah Washington.

At 13, Esther participated in a talent contest, where she was noticed by bandleader and talent scout Johnny Otis and persuaded to join his R&B show at the Barrelhouse Club.

It was Otis who gave Esther the moniker Little Esther and helped her record two singles on Modern Records. But her real breakthrough came when she sang a duet Double Crossing Blues with Bobby Nunn of the Robins. On its release the song shot to the top of the R&B charts where it stayed for 9 weeks. Later Otis inducted Esther into his star revue where she proved to be a great sensation.

Esther then paired up with Mel Walker to produce hits like Mistrustin’ Blues, and Cupid’s Boogie, achieving 6 consecutive R&B top ten hits, of which three were #1. Esther was soon being hailed as the hottest young artiste on the block.

A series of label changes followed and Esther parted ways with Otis. Most of her recordings from this period were unsuccessful though her collaboration with the Dominoes for The Deacon Moves In and Ring-a –Ding-Doo were well received.

This period also marked Esther’s growing drug dependency.It was speculated that the still teenage singer had been introduced to heroin by her singing partner Mel Walker. But however it may have started the habit would trouble Esther for the rest of her life.

Eventually Esther underwent rehab and moved back to her father’s home in Houston in 1962. While there she was noticed by Kenny Rogers singing at Paul’s Sidewalk Café. Impressed he convinced his brother Lelan Rogers to initiate the Lenox label to sign her on. Esther then changed her stage name to become Esther Phillips, the name being inspired by the signboard of a Phillips gas station.

With Lennox Esther released Am I That Easy to Forget, Be Honest With Me and Release Me in the country style. Release Me proved to be the biggest hit of Esther’s career. Topping the R&B charts it also became a crossover hit by coming in at No. 8 on the pop charts.

In 1963 Esther moved to the Atlantic label. However the label had difficulties slotting her sound and her efforts were met with modest success. By the late 60s however her drug problem re-surfaced and the label dropped her.

Emerging from rehab a few years later, she returned to Atlantic to release a critically acclaimed live album. In 1971 she moved to Creed Taylor’s Kudu label and came back into her own, performing at international jazz festivals and collaborating with other artistes. Her biggest hit with the label was 1975’s What A Diff’rence A Day Makes, a cover of Dinah Washington’s original.

Esther left Kudu in 1977 and then signed on with various independent labels without much success. In the meantime her drug and alcohol habit was escalating, taking its toll on her health. Eventually Esther passed away in August 1984 suffering from liver and kidney failure.

Esther once said “I’m just a singer. If I like a song it doesn’t matter to me where it comes from — I can do it my way.” And that is just what she did.